Portage and Whittier

June 30, 2009
Portage, AK

Today was an easy travel day. We started by moving about 100 feet - to fill the now-depleted fresh water tank at the Elks. From there, we drove about 20 miles south to Eagle River, where we took advantage of a free dump station at a local gas station. At least, we think it was free although we didn't bother to stop in the office and ask. Next, we stopped at a fuel stop in Anchorage for diesel before heading through part of the city (Anchorage is Alaska's largest city, with half the state's population and a land area about the size of Delaware - really). We're headed for the Kenai Peninsula, south of the city, and we drove along the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, which is very scenic. We stopped for lunch and watched the tides come in. The flow is so fast, you can actually see the water level rise.

After lunch, we continued on to our stopping point: Portage. Or, at least where Portage used to be. It was a small village, basically a flag stop on the Alaska Railroad, when it was wiped out by the Good Friday earthquake in 1964. A 9.2 magnitude quake will do that.

Anyway, we parked the coaches and headed out for the afternoon. Our first stop was Portage Lake, fed by Portage Glacier. This lake was interesting, since the glacier calves into the lake, creating mini-icebergs that float to the other end, right up to the shore.

After the required photo opps, we headed to the small town of Whittier, notable because it used to be only accessible by land via rail. During the gold rush, a 2.5 mile long railroad tunnel was blasted through solid rock to open up the port and connect to the Alaska Railway (giving rise to Portage). Once railroad traffic decreased, someone got the bright idea of paving the tunnel (leaving the rails exposed) and charging an exorbitant toll for vehicles to drive through. Not bad work, if you can get it. So, rather than pay $70 for the two coaches to go through, we opted to pile in the Range Rover and pay $12 to spend an hour there sightseeing. We made the right choice.

Part working port and part tourist trap, Whittier was interesting, and we had a good time poking around in shops and taking pictures. Since we weren't chartering a fishing boat or taking a cruise of Prince William Sound, we were glad we made an afternoon of it.

Click here for today's photos.

Tomorrow, we'll head south toward Seward...

Mush!

June 29, 2009
Palmer, AK

Today was an easy day. We puttered around in the morning, trying to get Geri's MRI follow-up scheduled (no luck this week; we'll try again on the way back), and then set off by car for a quick trip to Wasilla and the little town of Knik a bit further away.

Our primary destination was the Iditarod Race HQ, where we learned about the history of the race (started in the '60s to commemorate a 1925 mission to deliver diphtheria vaccine from Anchorage to Nome (Nome is waaay out in northwest Alaska in the Bering Sea and not easily accessible by land). We met a few sled dogs and a couple of pups, and gained a new appreciation for the rigors of the race.

After that, it was a couple of stops for touristy photos and then back to Wasilla for some shopping before heading home. We picked up Margarita fixings so were able to partake in happy hour and grilled some home-made burgers with bacon, cheese, carmelized onions, and Geri's new sauteed mushrooms. Mmmm.

Click here for pictures.

Tomorrow, we move on after a few days in one place. Next stop: the Kenai Peninsula.

The behinder you get...

June 28, 2009
Palmer, AK

... the longer it takes to catch up. I'm so far behind now, I'll let the photo albums do the catching up for me. Click on the date for each section below to see the pictures. Sorry for the extra clicks, but as you know, "every picture tells a story"...

June 22: We finished the drive down the Tok Cut-off and the Richardson Highway to Valdez, ending up at the local Elk's for the overnight. The highlights of the drive were a stop at Worthington Glacier and two of the many waterfalls along the road just north of Valdez.

June 23: We did a mini-tour of Valdez (OK, it's a small town and everything's close together). We saw the Alaska (aka Alyeska) Pipeline terminal, "Old Valdez" (the whole town was destryed in the 1964 "Good Friday Earthquake"), and Valdez Glacier.

June 24: This was an easy driving day, putting in a little over a hundred miles back north on the Richardson Highway, then the Edgerton Highway to Chitina, a small town on the Copper River right at the edge of the Wrangell-St Elias National Park (largest park in the US by land area). We found a boondocking spot right on the flood plain of the river and watched the locals fish for salmon. Now, that's Alaska! It was just like Quartzsite, except with water. We had a bald eagle scavenging for food right in front of the coach (too fast for pictures, unfortunately). Happy birthday to Pat and Larry!

June 25: Bob, Marlene, and I took a day trip 60 miles up the gravel road to McCarthy, then took a tour of the Kennecott Copper Mine. 2 hours each way on a washboard road, but it was definitely worth it!

June 26: We made the day-long (lots of frost heaves and some construction to slow us down) drive from Chitina to Palmer, a nice city of 4,500 people just northeast of Anchorage ("the big city) and right near Wasilla (which I'd never heard of before last year's Republican National Convention). We stopped at the Pipeline for pictures on the way, and set up camp at a very nice Elk's Lodge.

June 27: I took a day trip to Independence Mine, a gold mine now run by the Alaska Parks System. Geri was once again astute enough to stay home.

June 28: Today was a "down day". We relaxed and made a trip to Wal-Mart in Wasilla, and that's about it. Happy birthday to Belle!

Well, that's the catch up. Time to call it a day!

Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory

Friday 6/19

Went downtown to explore and get a free parking pass, we stopped to have lunch at a place called Klondike BBQ Salmon and rib place. We split a fish and chips lunch of halibut. It was wonderful, just because it was so fresh and I didn’t have to cook it. Then we went touring to a place called Miles Canyon, where George went to take some beautiful pictures. We had the pups with us so took them for a walk around the parking area. Canyons are so beautiful but I have this thing about them, its called fear! From there we headed to the Interpretive Center, where we learned about the mammoths and other animals which are now extinct, like beavers which were larger then bears. We learned about a continent that no longer exists, it’s was called Beringia, and was in between Canada and Asia which were all one continent. Then we went next store to the Transportation museum, not my area of interest but what the hay, it has some interesting things to see like the Gift shop which I browsed and promptly walked out due to sticker shock.

We were boon docking at Wal-mart so we headed back to drop off the pups and go to a brewery to check out the local brews , never got there due to George got to doing stuff for the next day’s departure. We sat down to dinner and low and behold its 8PM and the sun is shining we thought we’re having lunch! There’s no TV or internet, so I started another book. We were just settling down for the night when we heard a noise. We looked out the window and it was a pickup truck with a cap had just pulled up to park for the night as well, it was an older couple that proceeded to remove everything from the back of the truck, hoses, bags of assorted other things, the man climbed into the back and was handing all this stuff to his wife who did the moving it to various sides of the front of the truck, the last thing to be moved up front was 2 fishing poles, she placed in the front and locked the front of the truck went around climbed in herself and promptly closed the back and there you have it folks “camping in the wilderness”, or at Wal-mart. Lots of the RV’s we’ve seen on this trip say “Alaska bound” on their windows, Alaska or bust, one couple from Florida got married and planned their honeymoon to Alaska via RV.

So there you have it folks my little contribution to the blog !

Alaska!

June 21, 2009
Tok Cut-off/Glenn Highway, Mile Marker 35.2

We made it to Alaska! Yea!!

Today's drive was full of interesting roads. Some portions were very good (I thought we were on the Autobahn), some were construction zones with gravel (in spite of that, we found 40-45 MPH was the best speed), and the rest were some of the worst frost heaves we've ever seen (from 20-35 MPH zones).

We crossed the border in record time - 3 minutes. A few of the standard questions, and all was well.

Southbound traffic has been a little surprising, with quite a few RVs heading "the wrong way". A lot of them have Alaska plates, and are likely natives heading elsewhere for summer vacation, but many are people from the "lower 48" who've already "been there and done that". We met a couple today from Mahwah, NJ who left home on May 17th, drove all the way to Alaska, and are already headed home. I wonder where they stopped?

All that said, we made pretty good time and were in Tok (rhymes with "Poke") a little after noon. A stop at the Visitor's Center, a stop for diesel, and a quick trip through the coin-op car wash for Bob (I decided to wait until Valdez when we take the cover off the car), and we were headed south, putting in a few bumpy miles toward Valdez. Rod & Jean decided to spend a couple of nights in Tok, collecting their mail tomorrow and catching up on laundry, etc. They'll catch up over the next few days.

Click here for a few photos from today's travels.

On to Kluane and Burwash Landing

June 20, 2009
Alaska Highway, Mile Marker 1099.7

Today, we had some of the worst road conditions we've experienced so far. Thank goodness we all covered the front of our towed vehicles.

We started off from Whitehorse on schedule and made a stop at the Visitor's Centre in Haines Junction. Other than being the place where the road to Haines meets that Alaska Highway (clever, right?), it's also the gateway to Kluane National Park. No, I'd never heard of Kluane (klu-WAN-ne), either, but it's a huge protected area, home to Mount Logan (highest mountain in Canada and second-highest in North America, only visible and accessible by plane) and several large ice fields. We drove along the edge of the Park, and Kluane Lake, for much of the afternoon.

Near the Lake, we stopped in the small town of Burwash Landing (home to the world's largest gold pan) and stopped for the night at a rest area (well, I think it'll eventually be a rest area; right now it's more like a gravel pit) that should provide us a safe haven for the night. Tomorrow, we'll finish up the bad stretch (you know the frost heaves are bad when you make better time on the gravel stretches in construction zones) between here and the Alaska Border - yea!

Click here for pictures from today.

Touring Whitehorse

June 19, 2009
Whitehorse, YT

The tourists are back! We basically spent the day checking out some of the tourist sites in Whitehorse. We could have spent another day if we wanted to, but we're anxious to keep moving forward to Alaska at this point. We're already starting to meet people who have "been there and done that" and are headed back south!

We started the day with a coach move (to Wal-Mart, where else) and then a trip "downtown". Whitehorse has a small central business district, and we poked around there for a bit before stopping for lunch at a "BBQ and Salmon" place. We decided to split the Halibut Fish & Chips, which was a very good call (good eats, and a good idea to share one order). We picked up our "free visitor parking pass" (no paying meters here) as well.

Our next stop was Miles Canyon, a narrow gorge on the Yukon River upstream from downtown. This section of the river was the most difficult to navigate during the gold rush days, although it's relatively tame now since there's a dam and lake downstream, providing hydroelectric power to the area. There's an old suspension bridge there that provides a walkway across the gorge, so I went across for some pictures. Other than a short slide down a gravel slope that left me with a bruised knee, it was a nice walk.

Heading back to town, we stopped at the seaplane base (not much happening there) and then at several local landmarks. First was the "world's largest Mountie", a wooden statue in front of a hotel (whatever). Next was the world's largest weathervane. This was much more clever: a complete DC-3 airplane mounted on a pole in front of the airport. It actually works as a weathervane, spinning around as the wind direction changes.

We decided to make a quick stop at the Beringia Centre because there were statues of Wooly Mammoths out front, but decided to go in when we met a couple(Ed and Penny) coming out who recommended it. We met Ed while we were in Yuma at the start of the trip, at the place that installed our solar panels. We ran into them again a week or so ago in Dawson Creek. They were a day ahead of us, but are now a bit behind as they're staying in Whitehorse until early next week. Anyway, we found that the Beringia Centre wasn't about fossils as we thought (and after the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, we didn't think anyplace else would shine). It turns out that the focus here was on the way the last Ice Age impacted the local area. Because the ice fields froze up so much of the world's water, sea levels dropped by 125 metres and the whole area between Alaska and Siberia was a broad grassy plain with wildlife from Mammoths and bears to lions. Who'd have expected to hear about lions in Alaska? Go figure.

Right next door (and included in the "combo ticket price") is the Whitehorse Transportation Museum. It focused on three distinct topics: early methods getting from the coast inland (sternwheelers, narrow gauge railroads), bush pilots from the 1920s to the 1960s, and the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 (which changed everything). It was a small museum, but nicely done.

We didn't get to the history museum downtown, and we didn't get to visit (and sample at) the local brewery (D'oh), so we'll save those for next time. This Wal-Mart is a popular stopping point for RVs; I counted over 40 rigs of all shapes and sizes before bedtime. Just before midnight (which is just after sunset but still light out), a couple in a pick-up with a bed topper pulled in, grabbed everything from the back and shoved it in the front seat, hopped in the back, and pulled the window closed for the night. It takes all kinds...

Click here for today's pictures.